25 June 2014

If you've ever wondered how The Lord of the Rings Online stacks up to Tolkien's lore, wonder no more! "The White Council", a new YouTube series from the folks at The Quest Gaming Network, aims to use the popular MMO as a means of teaching others about the deeper meanings behind The Lord of the Rings and some of Tolkien's other writings.

I'm pleased to announce that I (rather, my Champion) will be among the series' rotating hosts as my schedule allows. The show will release on Mondays and Fridays at noon EST with the first episode scheduled for Monday, June 30; in the meantime, you can follow The White Council and Quest Gaming Network on Twitter and 'like' the network on Facebook!

10 June 2014

After nearly three years on the Middle-earth News team, I finally had the opportunity to meet the other US team members. About three weeks ago, we all met up in the beautiful state of Pennsylvania for what we lovingly called "The Long-expected Party".

Darrel Morris is a cigar and scrimshaw artist who has recently been working on some Tolkien-related designs, including Tolkien's monogram, the White Tree of Gondor, and – my personal favourite – the Shield of Gil-galad. Each pendant is hand carved by Darrel and most of these designs are available for purchase via his website.

08 June 2014

The 16-foot, 900-lb. dyrosaur, a type of crocodilian which
roamed the rainforest several millions of years after the dinosaurs died, now
has a scientific name.

Named after Tolkien’s Balrog, which lived deep within the
Mines of Moria, Anthracosuchus balrogus “was from deep within a mine after 60 million years trapped
within the rocks of tropical South America,” according to researcher Jonathan
Bloch, associate curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Florida Museum of
Natural History.

A. balrogus is the
third new species of crocodile found in the Cerrejon mines of Colombia, which also
housed the remains of the 58-ft long Titanoboa snake and turtles with
super-thick shells. A. balrogus is
thought to have originated in Africa before swimming across the Atlantic Ocean
to South America some 75 million years ago. They even managed to survive the mass
extinction event, which came 10 million years later and killed off the
dinosaurs.